Scrapbooking and photographing sweet treats and good eats in and around Toronto, bite by bite

I’m More of a Burrito “Girl” – Fish, Veggie and Cheese Burritos and Shrimp Quesadillas at Burrito Boyz

Imagine yourself in a small hole-in-the-wall place with a topping bar piled high with shredded cheese, lettuce, tomatoes, rice, beans, guacamole, sour cream, onions, jalapenos, bell peppers, and seafood sauce. The place is full to bursting with people spilling out through the restaurant’s doors and onto the steps that lead down to this popular hub-bub of Tex-Mex. There’s a buzz amongst the hungry crowd and workers need to shout out loud in order for everyone to hear them. Arms are flinging about left and right, grabbing food, making food, and by the time you know it, there isn’t an extra inch of space to sit down to eat. THIS is what it’s like at Burrito Boyz during lunch time!

I can’t vouch for dinner hour, but this is the scene that has come before me every single time I’ve come here and it’s simaltaneously exciting and overwhelming! It’s exciting to see a business with great food thrive on a daily basis, but at the same time overwhelming when you’re racing against the clock to get here when they open so you can snag yourself a seat! Remember what I said in my Tequila Sunrise post? Although the atmosphere here is very “grab n’ go”, I like to stay and eat if I can which requires me to park my tooshie at this fab burrito place no later than 11:15am. After that…well, grab a number!

An old friend of mine actually brought me to Burrito Boyz (the location on Adelaide St. West) almost 2 years ago and because of the crowds and my own timing, I’ve only been able to eat here about 3 times. I have enjoyed everything I’ve eaten here though and I wholeheartedly understand why this place has the business that it does. Burritos and quesadillas are their specialty and they have 7 burrito options and 5 quesadilla ones. There are two sizes of burritos (small and large) and prices for all their food range from $4.87 to $9.73. Burrito options include meat (chicken and steak), seafood (haddock, halibut, and shrimp), and veggie (veggie and cheese, and veggie soy), while quesadillas can be filled with all of the above excluding the halibut and haddock. I’ve tried their veggie and cheese burrito, their shrimp quesadilla, and their haddock burrito and although I loved them all and am looking forward to trying their veggie soy, I have to say that their seafood ones totally do it for me. YUM, LOVE, YUM.

What I absolutely adore about the food at Burrito Boyz is how crunchy and crispy everything is. You know how burritos and such can get weighed down by the filling inside? And how the heavy filling can sometimes make the burrito soggy and fall apart thus creating a Mexican fiesta on the table, or worse, on your lap? Yeah, that doesn’t happen with the burritos or quesadillas here. If stuff falls out, it’s only because it’s stuffed to the brim with veggies and beans and rice and burrito goodness, not because of its lack of sturdiness.

The burritos and quesadillas are pressed and toasted and the texture is fantastic. You have this sturdy toasted tortilla shell that keeps everything in, and the only word that comes to mind that can accurately describe how good the filling tastes is, “Mmmmmmm!!!!” With the exception of hot sauce and jalapenos, I order all toppings for my food and the combination of green onions, green bell peppers, diced tomatoes, and melted cheese along with everything else is amazing. So perfectly melted and ooey and gooey.

The value is great because not only can a small burrito tide me over onto the next meal (no joke, I could only finish 3/4 of a SMALL veggie and cheese my first time here and ate the rest near the end of the day on my way home), but they don’t skimp on product. They seriously pack the toppings in and you can distinctly taste each and every veggie, bean, cheese, and sauce topping. Not to mention the “meat” of the burrito is well worth it. My shrimp quesadilla was packed with large shrimps that were plump and juicy and my haddock burrito was flaky with moist fish. The seafood sauce that came with my quesadilla was delicious and you know how I am with sour cream and guacamole; I mop the stuff up 😀

I know it seems like, “well, they’re just burritos” or “it’s just Tex-Mex type food” but that’s kind of the beauty of it. Sometimes it’s the “simplest” things that are the easiest to mess up because people can make too much of it and they muck it up with their attempt at complexity. Burrito Boyz excels at what they do and I think that should be the philosophy of any restaurant business. The point isn’t to do a million things and then not do anything well. It’s better to stick to what you know you’re awesome at and let those things do the talking. It’s delicious, simple, commonplace food done right.

*****

Burrito Boyz is located at 218 Adelaide St. West, west of Simcoe St. and east of Duncan St. They have a number of locations in Toronto and the GTA, including Bramption, Mississauga, Streetsville, and Waterloo. Their 2nd Toronto location resides in the neighbourhood of Little Italy at 575 College St. West, just west of Manning Ave. in between Bathurst St. and Ossington Ave. For more info on their menu and other locations, click here.